(a) Technical Field
The present invention relates to a communication connector enabling the communication status thereof to be determined independently and a communication apparatus comprising the communication connector, and more particularly to a communication connector enabling the communication status thereof to be determined independently which makes it possible to determine the communication status of the communication connector by the communication connector itself independently without the involvement of a processor for controlling the communication connector through wired data communication and a communication apparatus comprising the communication connector.
(b) Background Art
As data sharing has become more common between multiple devices, the establishment of a communication interface is now essential in devices. However, such establishment of a communication interface requires an addition of various technical elements, and for example, requires inevitably the establishment of a communication stack on the seven (7) layers of the OSI (Open System Interconnection) model.
There are several methods to establish such a communication stack. As one of the typical methods, there is a technique of replacing the processor of an apparatus that requires the establishment of a communication interface with a processor capable of supporting software-wise the implementation of a communication stack.
Such a technique of replacement requires a processor with higher performance to replace and furthermore, needs more extensive verification due to the addition of communication functionality and other functions required by a device during development. Accordingly, it may cause a problem of rising cost and a decline in product reliability.
Alternatively, there is a technique in which an existing processor included in an apparatus that needs the establishment of a communication interface is used as it is and the apparatus further includes a communication processor (for example, a processor capable of executing programs of the communication stack, a chipset consisting of logic for communication conversion, etc.) capable of connecting to the existing processor through serial communication and of processing the communication stack.
Such a technique of adding a communication processor can utilize the same software and the like configured on the existing processor as it is, and can simply use a dedicated communication processor and the like so as to maintain the reliability in relation to the functionality of an existing apparatus, thereby simplifying the development.
However, such a technique of adding a communication processor has several drawbacks. For example, since the existing processor is connected to the dedicated communication processor through a serial interface and the dedicated communication processor is controlled by the existing processor, the technique of adding a communication processor may cause a difficulty in determining whether it is a problem of the communication processor itself or it is a problem resulting from inaccurate control of the communication processor by the existing processor when communication is not possible through the communication processor.
The problem will get worse in the case that the dedicated communication processor automatically converts a data packet from a TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) packet or IP (Internet Protocol) packet to a MAC (Media Access Control) packet and then outputs it through an external communication interface.
Moreover, there exist problems in that such a technique of adding a communication processor needs to further include a dedicated communication processor in an apparatus, thereby causing the size of the apparatus to increase and it is necessary to significantly modify the design of the board in the apparatus.
Therefore, there is a need for a communication connector enabling the communication status thereof to be determined automatically so as to resolve the problems arising from the technique of adding a communication processor, and a communication apparatus comprising the communication connector.